Â It isn’t being called rationing since the president repeatedly pledged that would never happen under Obamacare but, pledge as they might, the Obamians are already busily engaged in restricting Americans’ access to medical testing and treatment, akaÂ rationing.Â Â

And, don’t dare even whisper the term “death panels.”Â Sarah Palin and others were widely ridiculed by the administration for suggestingÂ their existenceÂ since, we were promised, Obamacare wouldÂ never incorporate such a ghastly feature.Â Instead, they’re calledÂ ”ethics panels.”

YearsÂ before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is fully implemented in 2014, measures are being taken nationwide to cut costs and limit access to medical procedures which for decades were considered prudent and necessary for diagnosis and treatment of potentially life-threatening illnesses and diseases.Â Â

It’s the old trick of boiling a frog adaptedÂ to medicine.Â

Those interested in boiling frogsÂ knowÂ you should never throw the little amphibians into pots of boiling water since they tend to jump out and spoil the fun.Â Likewise, politicians know they can’t literally throw grannie under a bus, pullÂ the plug on gramp’s respirator, or assign a cancer patient to a death panelÂ since grannie, gramps, and the cancer patientÂ are liable to kick them where it hurts.Â

You have to boil them gradually and use euphemisms as you do it.Â

Â Rationing began in earnest earlier this year when the FDAÂ withdrew approval of Genentech’sÂ highly-effective but expensiveÂ breast cancer drug AvastinÂ on the basis that it hadÂ ”a marginal effect on tumor growth in breast cancer and in light of Avastin’s severe side effects, the risks outweigh the limited benefit.”Â (http://bit.ly/w1cyIj)Â Â

The FDA didn’t directly address that opinion to the thousands of women whose lives have been extended by that “limited benefit” and who scoff at the alleged side effects and risks.Â

Life, for frogs and human beings, supersedes both the pleasures of boiling water and side effects despite cost savings.Â

As for mammograms, women only think they should get them annually but that’s another misconception according toÂ the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, USPTF,Â whichÂ seems to have beenÂ assembled by the Department of Health and Human Services less for the purpose of preventing than for rationing.Â

The task force of 16 “independent experts” concluded in November, 2009 that itÂ makes no senseÂ for women to either perform breast self-exams or get routine mammograms before reaching the age of 50.Â Possibly saving your life is purposeless, and it costs money.Â

After the flak hit the fan and women adopted the frog approach to boiling water, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebellius backtracked and insisted the “experts” were merely recommending, not establishing policy or determining coverage–and Republicans were absolute cads for suggesting otherwise.Â (http://tiny.cc/ubqz9)Â

Chalk one up for the women-folk.Â

Again only recommending, in October, 2011, the same task force reported that â€œProstate-specific antigenâ€“based screening results in small or no reduction in prostate cancerâ€“specific mortalityâ€Â despite findings by true independent studies showing such screenings reduce death rates by up to 90%.Â

Following that money-saving recommendation,Â the nationâ€™s largest urology group jumped all over the USPTF saying, â€œBecause of early detection efforts, the death rate from prostate cancer has decreased 38% (from almost 40 per 100,000 men in 1992 to fewer than 25 per 100,000 in 2007).â€Â

Don’t confuse us with facts,Â retorted major health insurers and government cohorts in crime, Aetna and Kaiser Permanente.Â Both companiesÂ quicklyÂ issued statements indicatingÂ they are re-consideringÂ payments for the test based on the USPTFâ€™s announcement, umm, recommendation.Â (http://tiny.cc/ygfn1)Â Â

Chalk one up for rationing.Â

Cynics must wonderÂ whether anyone at HHS or USPTF has endured the agonies of breast or prostate cancer.Â

Finally, one unidentified brain surgeon contended he had reviewed Obamacare’s plan for advanced neurosurgical care for patients over 70 and that itÂ effectively consigned elders to funeral homes.Â

According to the surgeon, a very credible caller on Mark Levin’s radio show,Â theÂ “disturbing” as yet unpublished scheme as spelled out by HHS included those euphemistic â€œethics panels.â€Â HHS has advised doctorsÂ that a patient over 70 on government supported healthcare who visited an emergency room would be givenÂ â€œcomfort care,â€ palliative care, not treatment.Â Â

Almost asÂ shocking but entirely explicable from the point of view of HHS bureaucrats, patients aren’t referred to as patients anymore.Â They’re called “units” andÂ rather than doctors determining the proper course for their care, â€œethics panelsâ€ or â€œethics committeesâ€Â consisting not of physicians but hospital administrators will make that call.

Before treating a “unit,” doctors are expected to wait until pencil-pushing hospital administrators “meet and decide where the money would go for hospitals, and basically for patients [units] over 70 years of age, that advanced neurosurgical care was not generally indicated,”Â medical-speak for not treated.Â

WereÂ one anonymous surgeon’s sorry taleÂ the sole evidenceÂ that rationingÂ and death panels are not only planned but well under way for Americans, he could be dismissed as a cranky malcontent.Â Factor in banning Avastin and the USPTF’s efforts to restrict mammograms and prostate cancer screenings and only the federalÂ government could still say Obamacare doesn’t ration medical care and isn’t establishing death panels.Â

Then, again, federal employees including President Barack Hussein Obama who conceived of Obamacare, theÂ Congress which passed it, and the bureaucrats who implement it aren’t victims of Obamacare.Â They all are insured under the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program.Â

Â Come on now!Â Advocates of socialized medicine may be sinister but they’re not stupid!Â If they were frogs, they’d be the first to leap out of the boiling Obamacare pot, if they had to.

1 user responded on " Obamacare Rationing Has Arrived: Live, or Die, with It "

“Ethics panels?” If this weren’t so serious an issue it would be laughable, coming from this gang of Chicago thugs. Heaven forbid you are diagnosed with a rare form of, for example, cancer. Because the numbers to merit treatment simply aren’t there, you may as well be put in a canoe on a lake in Northern Alaska with the Inuits and sent out to die.
God help us all and God save America!

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